Lesson Plans

AIA Lesson Plans

How Archaeology Works

Trash Talks (Grades 5-12) Safely-collected trash teaches lessons about archaeology and interpretation.

What Will Survive (Grades 6-10) Starting with their own classrooms, students assess what will survive for archaeologists of the future to discover and interpret.

Ancient Cultures

Ancient Greek Art (Grades 6-10) An exercise in looking at Greek art of the Archaic and Classical periods and creating an artwork in one ancient style.

Simulated Digs

Start here Basics of Archaeology for Simulated Digs

Fun, hands-on archaeology for the classroom allows young students (Elementary-Middle School ages) to experience directly the logic and responsibility of careful discovery and digging.

Layer Cake Dig (Grades K-2) Young students dig and eat the layers of an archaeological site they can see from the side.

Transparent Shoebox Dig (Grades 2-3) The Transparent Shoebox Dig allows young elementary school students to understand stratigraphy and archaeological excavation from the lowest layers up.

Shoebox Dig (Grades 3-6) The Shoebox Dig in a cardboard box provides older elementary students the experience of digging a small site top down, sight unseen. Can be modified for Middle School.

Schoolyard Dig (Grades 6-12) This simulated one-layer site prepared in the ground offers Middle or High Schoolers a realistic but limited experience of excavation practices.

Mystery Cemetery

(Grades 6 and older) A Halloween challenge: using maps and images (or a 3D cemetery if desired), students interpret an already-excavated site to solve a puzzle.
Mystery Cemetery Overview Introduction to the the cemetery project, the underlying premise, and an approach to interpretation.
Mystery Cemetery Maps Map 1, Map 1 in black and white without a key so students can create their own if the teacher prefers, Map 2 after further excavation of the Mystery Cemetery.
Email programs@archaeological.org for answer key.

And more lesson plans coming soon!

Third-party Lesson Plans

1. American School of Classical Studies at Athens has a series of more than a dozen lesson plans and teacher resources on Greco-Roman civilization and the medieval Mediterranean world.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, K-12 lesson plans (Ancient Mesopotamia – Literacy, Then & Now; Muses vs. Sirens; Ancient Animals at Work; Power in Mesopotamia; Architecture and the Natural World).
3. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Classroom Resources. The Archaeology of Cactus Run: A Paper Excavation; Pueblo Indian History for Kids and more.
4. National Park Service Junior Ranger Archaeology Program.
5. “Think Like an Archaeologist” provides 6th graders with a comprehensive introduction to the entire archaeological process through four classroom sessions, plus one field visit.